I read three articles in today’s paper that referenced either Korea or Korean heritage:

Navies of Two Koreas Exchange Fire – Ironic on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Korea remains divided and seemingly farther away from unification.When I think of this division between the two Koreas, I think of my mother, fleeing from her home in what is North Korea at the outbreak of the war, burying her prized possessions in the belief that she would soon return to retrieve them. I’m quite certain she could not have imagined the calcification of a one-mile-wide demilitarized zone between her home and the south.

Ward Helps Biracial Youths on Journey Towards Acceptance – Hines Ward, star wide receiver of the Pittsburgh Pirates, meets in South Korea with teens who are, like him, have one parent who is Korean and one parent who is not. These children have led a difficult life in a country that is, for the most part, culturally and racially homogenous. Hines Ward is the only Korean professional football player I’m aware of.

Adopted From Korea and in Search of an Identity – A heartbreaking story of cultural denial by Korean children adopted by white families in the U.S. and their ultimate efforts at reclaiming their heritage. This story hit home most for me because, though I wasn’t adopted, I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood and shed much of my cultural identity in order to assimilate.